In the winding of an armature of the type which includes an armature shaft supporting a slotted core and a commutator having peripherally spaced hook-like tangs, it is common to use an automatic armature winding machine of the general type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,267,379 and 3,013,737. This general type of winding machine is sometimes constructed to form an "alpha-type" connection between the wire leads extending from each coil and its corresponding commutator tangs. Such "alpha-type" lead connections are disclosed in British Pat. No. 942,026 and also in U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,172 which issued to the assignee of the present invention.
When winding some armatures which have many coils of fine wire, it is sometimes desirable to wrap each lead wire completely around the armature shaft when the lead wire is being connected to a corresponding tang, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,893. This form of winding is sometimes helpful to avoid tearing or severing of the lead wires as successive coils are wound and the end-turns of the coils build up on top of the lead wires and apply pressure to the lead wires. On the other hand, when winding armatures with relatively heavy wire, such as armatures commonly used in the low voltage automotive field, it is common to use heavy tangs on the commutator to avoid bending and breaking of the tangs as a result of the tension in the lead wires created by the build-up of coil turns during the winding operation. This results in the commutator requiring more copper metal and in a correspondingly greater cost.
In the operation of an automatic double-flyer winding machine for winding an armature with "alpha-type" connections of the lead wires to the tangs, such as disclosed in above U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,172, a typical winding operation includes the following steps:
1. An unwound armature is positioned between the winding forms or chucks, and the chucks are closed. PA1 2. The armature is rotated or indexed on its axis to orientate the core's slots precisely with respect to the winding forms or chucks. PA1 3. Each flyer is rotated forwardly and then stopped at a predetermined "normal" stop position. PA1 4. The cylindrical outer shield surrounding the commutator is retracted to expose a set of predetermined tangs. PA1 5. Wire deflectors are moved into the winding paths of the wires extending from the flyers. PA1 6. The flyers are then reversed or rotated in the opposite direction from winding to hook the corresponding exposed tangs with the wires extending from the flyers. PA1 7. The wire deflectors are retracted out of the paths of the wires extending from the flyers. PA1 8. The outer shield is extended to cover the exposed tangs hooked with the wires. PA1 9. A set of wire coils is wound and the flyers stop at their normal stop positions. PA1 10. The armature is indexed to present another set of core slots. PA1 11. The outer shield is retracted to expose another set of commutator tangs. PA1 12. The wire deflectors are shifted into the paths of the wires extending from the flyer. PA1 13. The flyers are reversed or rotated in an opposite direction to hook the corresponding wires onto the exposed tangs. PA1 14. The wire deflectors are retracted out of the wire path. PA1 15. The outer shield is extended to cover the exposed tangs. PA1 16. A second set of coils is wound, and the flyers stop. The above winding steps are repeated for winding each coil on the armature core, and the cycle time required for completely winding a typical armature is on the order of 20 to 40 seconds.